


only dog know your name

by shortcrust



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - His Dark Materials Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29706153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortcrust/pseuds/shortcrust
Summary: In the parking lot, Johnny reaches for Viv’s scales and finds fur instead.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29





	only dog know your name

Maybe - at the risk of sounding all biblical - it’s some kind punishment for what they did. For what Bobby did, while he just stood there and watched. Falling to the ground beside LaRusso and shouting apologies through the wet tears of their mutual agony wasn’t enough, it turns out. Not to make up for that. More _Hail Marys_ needed.

In the parking lot, Johnny reaches for Viv’s scales and finds fur instead.

-

“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, and the sibilance is all wrong.

-

Johnny’s mom pets back his hair and calls him a _late bloomer_ and no one needs to fucking know about it, okay? First day he walked into that dojo she looked like a black cobra, slick and shiny, and that’s all anyone has ever seen since. Hell, even he had thought that maybe she’d settled. No biggie. Probably just hadn’t told him.

She was perfect as she was.

Just another thing LaRusso took from him.

-

Come the weekend, Johnny drives across town to the library he used to go to when he was growing up.

When he gets to the front desk he points a thumb at his shoulder. “Hey. I’m looking for a book on whatever she is.”

Vivieke puffs out her long tail, offended. He can feel it tickle up against the back of his neck and the soft-shelled underside of his ear, the same way he used to feel the corded whip of her body.

-

LaRusso looked out of place from the first moment he arrived. Who the hell did this weird, awkward shrimp think he was? And what the fuck does he have, all knees and elbows, that makes him think he can put the moves on Johnny’s girl? Macking up on Ali, her tabby cat twirling between long bird legs?

 _Hah_. Crane kick.

Give him a fucking break.

-

“Are you sure?” he asks. “Are you _sure_ you can’t turn into a badass snake again? Have you _tried_?”

Her little yellow eyes narrow, and pack a surprising amount of unimpressed judgement in their tiny gaze.

-

Bobby comes to find him before anyone else. He says two things.

“I won’t be going back,” and then, “None of the guys - no one thinks of you any different.”

Rather than deal with either of those options, Johnny elects for whatever’s behind door number three.

“What did it feel like?”

-

The way LaRusso had moved on the mat, the way the bird flitted around and jumped amidst his kicks and feints, was different than it was at the beach, at the party, at the chainlink fence behind a shitty apartment. It’s like they’d been distilled down into particles and figured out just how they were made from the same stuff.

-

“It felt like I was shoving one hand into his guts and another into his brain and _squeezing_.”

-

She’s beautiful, when he lets himself think it. Of course she is. How could she ever be anything else? Sure, she’s not big, but it does take both hands to hold her. He raises her up to eye level, listens to her make her little put-upon huffs of complaint while he carefully inspects her razor teeth and individually sheathed dagger claws.

Weird is that she is soft to the touch. Stranger that she even has the ability to be after all this time. There is give in her flesh like this, belying the strange solidity that has arrived following the settling. A odd kind of heaviness, or realness. A here-I-am-ness.

A pretty face that packs a punch, just like him.

Black scales on red leather swap out for brown fur on black. It’s cool. Perched on his shoulder she’s a head taller than everyone else.

-

Viv roots around in the trash. Johnny takes from her mouth and holds up to the light two pieces of a ripped-up check.

A name starts percolating, but she nips at the underside of his arm. “Don’t even think about it.”

-

_The mongoose_ , says the thick encyclopedia, _is known for its ability to fight and kill venomous snakes, especially cobras. Their specialised acetylcholine receptors render them immune to venom._

**Author's Note:**

> Daniel: My daemon's name is Antigone, isn't she simply beautiful? She is a red-crowned crane, the scientific name for which is _Grus japonensis_. They're an incredibly rare species which in Japan are a symbol of luck, longevity, and fidelity :-)
> 
> Johnny: Yo this is Viv she’s brown
> 
> Just a very small something, because I couldn't get this idea or [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=617JuBmBhAg&ab_channel=LordInvader-Topic) out of my brain - many and endless thanks to [trinityofone](https://trinityofone.tumblr.com/) for shouting about it with me! You can find me [on tumblr](https://shortcrust.tumblr.com/) where I'm haunted by the _HDM_ AU in [all of its possible forms](https://shortcrust.tumblr.com/post/644125370686291968).


End file.
